Belton intentionally waited to 'raise alerts' about lead in drinking water, official says

Belton's utilities director said the city intentionally disregarded a state-imposed deadline to warn people about the public-health risk of having lead in their drinking water.

"Before we raised alerts about it, we wanted to have a plan in place," said utilities director Bo Barnes. "We had 60 days to do it, and we wanted to be able to have a plan in place to fix things when we let people know."

Lead was discovered, according to Belton officials, in water samples taken from old pipes in old houses last year. Babies, children and pregnant women are especially vulnerable to the effects of lead exposure, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In homes where the tap water has an elevated level of lead, the CDC recommends using bottled water or water from a filtration system that has been certified by an independent testing organization to reduce or eliminate lead for cooking, drinking and preparing baby formula.

According to state records, Belton's deadline for telling people about the lead detected in their water was Jan. 13 — two months after the city knew about its existence.

Barnes said city workers wanted to meet with the Belton-Honea Path Water Authority, the supplier of the city's water, to talk about the problem before issuing a public notice. The water authority's regular meeting was Jan. 22. Belton waited for that meeting to happen, then issued a public notice about the lead in the water two days later, on Jan. 24.

The state Department of Health and Environmental Control had already issued the city a notice of violation by then, telling Belton that it failed to comply with "state primary drinking water regulations."

Belton Mayor Wendell Page, who also has known about lead in the city's water since November, had a slightly different explanation of what happened, saying that the city tried to get an extension of time to notify the public but did not.

"It was impossible for us to get it done sooner," Page said Tuesday. "No City Council member or city staff member would harm people or hold back information on purpose. I'm a human being. I have a heart."

When pressed, Page said he was "not a chemist" and that the city of Belton "needed guidance" before telling the public about the presence of lead in the water.

"We needed to have information about what was going on," he said. "I don't want to put a false scare into anybody. We can't just panic and tell everybody."

Barnes sent DHEC a signed record Jan. 25 indicating that the public had been notified. DHEC is still reviewing that record, and it's not clear whether the agency will fine Belton for failing to meet its public-notice requirements.

DHEC's role in overseeing Belton's water

When a city or town is found to have elevated levels of lead in its water, the federal Environmental Protection Agency requires the entity to complete several steps, including "public education," various types of water monitoring and performing corrosion-control treatment.

DHEC, the agency responsible for overseeing public health and water quality in South Carolina, will supervise Belton's efforts to ensure the city complies with federal requirements. Late Tuesday afternoon, DHEC spokesman Tommy Crosby sent an email responding to questions from the Independent Mail.

Crosby said Belton's water will be tested every six months for at least the next year. One round of testing will happen by June, and the next will happen between July and December. The number of tap samples required during this monitoring will increase to 40 — double the number that were tested in 2018 when the elevated lead levels were discovered.

Orthophosphate, the additive that the water authority plans to use to keep lead from seeping into drinking water, is intended to be the corrosion-control piece of the requirements Belton must meet. DHEC does not require that orthophosphate be automatically included in water treatment processes, Crosby said.

But orthoposphate is already in use by the largest water supplier in the Anderson area. The phosphate derivative is commonly used to control the release of lead and copper, according to the EPA. When it is included in water treatment processes, the additive acts as a barrier, forming a protective coating on service lines and household plumbing.

Scott Willett, the executive director of the Anderson Regional Joint Water System, said his organization has always used it as part of its ordinary treatment processes.

"We do it because we know we have older homes throughout our service area," he said. "We have them in Pendleton, in Anderson, pretty much throughout the area, especially the mill-hill houses. When you have residential areas that are susceptible to lead seepage, it is common to use this additive, which is totally safe and is meant for corrosion control."

The regional water system serves about 200,000 customers in Anderson and Pickens counties.

The Belton-Honea Path Water Authority has never before used orthophosphate as part of its treatment process, said general manager Mitch Ellenburg. His water authority serves 12,000 to 15,000 customers in a 40-square-mile area that includes parts of Anderson and Abbeville counties. The customers' source water comes from the Saluda River.

All of the water found to have elevated lead levels came from homes with older pipes in Belton, officials said.

The cost of the orthophosphate additive — estimated at $12,000 per year — breaks down to $1 or less per customer per year.

So why not use the additive sooner?

"We've had no issues with lead exceedance before now," Ellenburg said Tuesday. "It's got to be done now, is the bottom line. So we're going to do it, and we don't have any plans at this point to pass the cost of it on to the customer."

Follow Nikie Mayo on Twitter @NikieMayo or email her at mayon@independentmail.com.